[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[November 20, 1999]
[Pages 2115-2116]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 2115]]


The President's Radio Address
November 20, 1999

    Good morning. I'm speaking to you from Istanbul, Turkey, where we 
just wrapped up a successful summit meeting of the Organization of 
Security and Cooperation in Europe, one that focused on the global 
challenges of the new century. At the same time, our administration has 
also wrapped up our work with Congress on the first budget of the new 
century.
    Today I want to talk to you about what we achieved and highlight a 
little-known accomplishment that will make a big difference to people 
with disabilities who want to be part of our Nation's growing economy.
    This week's budget agreement is truly a victory for the American 
people, a victory for children because it invests in world-class 
education that keeps us on the path to hiring 100,000 quality teachers 
to reduce class size. It doubles funds for after-school and summer 
school programs, and it provides help for communities to turn around 
failing schools or shut them down. It's a victory for families and 
neighborhoods, because it commits the resources necessary to begin 
hiring another 50,000 community police officers to keep our crime rate, 
already at a 25-year low, coming down. It's a victory for future 
generations, because it protects the environment and preserves more 
natural areas, and it's a victory for American leadership in the world, 
because finally, it pays our U.N. dues and maintains our commitments 
around the globe to peace in the Middle East, to reducing the nuclear 
threat and chemical weapons threats, to helping relieve the debt of the 
world's poorest nations.
    In short, we have delivered a 21st century budget that prepares for 
the future and lives up to our values. It also continues to pay down our 
national debt, because we walked away from that big $792 billion tax cut 
that the Congress passed and I vetoed. So we got the best of all worlds.
    Perhaps nothing better symbolizes just what we were fighting for 
than the historic progress made in the budget to open new doors of 
opportunity for Americans with disabilities.
    Now, we're enjoying one of the strongest economies in generations. 
Yet even today 75 percent of Americans with severe disabilities who are 
ready, willing, and able to work aren't working. One of the biggest 
reasons is they fear they'll lose their health insurance when they get a 
job. And there's a good reason for this fear.
    Under current law, many people with disabilities are eligible for 
Medicaid or Medicare coverage. But they can't go to work and keep that 
coverage. Yet when they do go to work, they can't get private insurance 
because of their disability. So there is a tremendous disincentive to 
work. Let me just give you one example.
    I met a man in New Hampshire not long ago who is paralyzed as a 
result of an accident. He wanted to take a job that paid $28,000 a year, 
but he would have lost his Medicaid health coverage, which would have 
led to medical expenses of $40,000 a year. Now, the taxpayers would 
actually be better off. We're going to pay the medical expenses one way 
or the other, but if he went to work, he'd become a taxpaying citizen, 
and more important, he would have the dignity of work. No citizen should 
have to choose between going to work and paying medical bills.
    I'm very proud this week that Congress, on a bipartisan basis, 
finally agreed on the historic work incentives improvement act. It's 
bipartisan legislation to allow people with disabilities to keep their 
health care on the job. They can earn a salary, pay taxes, and be role 
models by proving what people can do if given a chance to live up to 
their God-given potential.
    This will make a real difference, also, for people with potentially 
severe disabilities, those who are facing the early onset of diseases 
like AIDS, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's, or diabetes. Right now they 
may be able to work, but their conditions aren't deemed severe enough to 
qualify for Medicaid. Yet because they have them, they still can't get 
private health insurance. In other words, they can't get any health care 
until they're too sick to work.
    In the final hours of negotiations, we were able to further 
strengthen this legislation by getting $250 million for a demonstration 
program to allow these Americans to buy into Medicaid, stay on the job, 
and stay healthier longer. I encourage all the States to take advantage 
of these new health care options.

[[Page 2116]]

    Taken together, this initiative is the most significant advancement 
for people with disabilities since the passage of the Americans with 
Disabilities Act almost a decade ago. It is part of our administration's 
7-year commitment to tearing down barriers to work and rewarding 
responsibility. Along with reforming welfare, increasing the minimum 
wage, increasing child care assistance, and doubling the earned-income 
tax credit, the work incentives improvement act is another milestone on 
the path to opening work and rewarding responsibility for Americans.
    Now, I hope we'll stay on that course and take on America's still-
unfinished agenda: commonsense gun safety legislation, a real Patients' 
Bill of Rights, meaningful hate crimes legislation, saving Social 
Security, reforming Medicare, adding prescription drug coverage, raising 
the minimum wage.
    To Congress I say, we've done a good job for the American people by 
working together. Let's keep working together, build on our progress, 
and get the right things done for the American people.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 12:41 p.m. on November 19 in the Perge 
Room at the Conrad Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, for broadcast at 10:06 
a.m. on November 20. The transcript was made available by the Office of 
the Press Secretary on November 19 but was embargoed for release until 
the broadcast.